Realigning theory, practice, and justice in global south youth studies

Abstract

This essay outlines an agenda for youth studies from the vantage point of the Global South and describes the structure of the Oxford handbook of Global South Youth Studies. Youth in the Global South emerge in the postcolonial world in relation to material and social precarity, with their everyday practices constituting embodied forms of knowing, responses to their social, material, economic, and political circumstances. Research with Southern youth therefore involves working alongside, documenting, and acknowledging these practices, an exercise that constitutes a form of "epistepraxis": a knowledge creation endeavor underpinned by contextually relevant theory, aligned with people's innovative practices, in search of social justice. This approach is reflected in the structure of the handbook. An introductory section distils the conditions that precipitated the Global South and the characteristics of youthful populations that inhabit it. The second part grapples with features of life for youth in the Global South, unpacking eleven relevant concepts, using Southern theory. The final section continues to explore the intersections of theory, practice, and politics, shifting focus to look specifically at examples of methodological, practical, and policy-related interventions, in an attempt to disrupt business-asusual knowledge production.